Qantas - Why no WhatsApp or Chatbot?

[LionKing]

When you need specific help from Qantas, the only way you can do is call, yes using a phone to call.
It is 2025, the age of AI and Chatbots. Jetstar has one, why Qantas are yet to introduce a Chatbot, or WhatsApp on their website?
I suppose a Qantas WhatsApp would ease a lot of pain for it's customers avoiding long wait times occupying their member's phones?

 

[opusman]

I suppose a chatbot wouldn't necessarily be worse than the Phillipines call centre.

There was a time not that many years ago when you could actually chat online to someone.

 

[sudoer]

There was a time not that many years ago when you could actually chat online to someone.

Yep, IIRC it got shutdown at the start of covid and never came back...

 

[jastel]

Dont give them any ideas....

Bad as some human "help" is at least it IS human and you might get some service.

A chat bot has problems with GET HUMAN in my experience.

 

[TheInsider]

Dont give them any ideas....

Bad as some human "help" is at least it IS human and you might get some service.

A chat bot has problems with GET HUMAN in my experience.

If you think that this isn't already happening, then your mistaken. Most enquiries on the phone are for advice that is clearly available on the website. People still call to 'reconfirm' flights. Get rid of the human element in these basic enquiries, then you reduce the human errors that always occur with outsourced call centres, especially offshored ones.
If an AI chatbot can reduce the call load by 10-25% then that leaves the bookings and harder stuff for the agents.

 

[dylarr]

You can get assistance via Facebook Messenger but it's only good for non-urgent queries as it can take many hours to get a response.

As mentioned above, live chat and SMS was once a thing but got closed down during COVID. I do wish it was still available as sometimes it's handy when you need to get something quick resolved without having to spend time on the phone.

 

[drron]

Having a chat bot and What’s App doesn’t necessarily mean better service. I have used both on QR . Absolutely no help and both advised me to use the online form or email address on the website. The problem was they were why I was trying the alternative as neither worked.

 

[aikman]

For me, some issues are easier dealt with in writing, especially when dealing with PNRs, flight numbers, dates, times. It can also be hard sometimes to understand accents and hear during bad voice connections.

 

[Mwenenzi]

If you think that this isn't already happening, then your mistaken. Most enquiries on the phone are for advice that is clearly available on the website. People still call to 'reconfirm' flights. Get rid of the human element in these basic enquiries, then you reduce the human errors that always occur with outsourced call centres, especially offshored ones.
If an AI chatbot can reduce the call load by 10-25% then that leaves the bookings and harder stuff for the agents.

And a 15-30% reduction is real live agents following any AI chatbot introduction.

 

[CMA222]

Having a chat bot and What’s App doesn’t necessarily mean better service. I have used both on QR . Absolutely no help and both advised me to use the online form or email address on the website. The problem was they were why I was trying the alternative as neither worked.

I tried to get some very basic information, that was referred to in a credit card statement, from St George Bank (Westpac) this week, . I searched everywhere on their website and could not find it. Every thread I followed took me round in circles and eventually ended up where I had already searched without success. I tried their Chatbot which was totally useless and eventually it said the enquiry will be forwarded to a service professional for resolution. The next screen said to re-enter my enquiry and a service professional (a real human) would get back to me within 48 hours with an answer. Still waiting. The AI Chatbot reduces the call load by causing customers to give up in frustration, which is what I have done.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

The tech is only as good as its implementation, resourcing, and training.

There are plenty of examples of companies that offer excellent service via chat/social media channels, and AI bots that are so good you may not realise you're not speaking to a human. There are also plenty of examples of companies who use it as further cost-cutting and penny-pinching and it reflects in the poor service, lack of empowerment to do anything, etc.

I've also started to take note of companies I interact with that do provide decent support via these channels, but resolution takes longer as it's obvious the agent is managing multiple chats at once which isn't the case when calling over the phone, meaning each response takes longer even if they do ultimately resolve the issue to my satisfaction.

If QF wants to provide quality live support via chat or social media channels, there is plenty of good CRM software out there to enable them to do so.

 

[exceladdict]

The tech is only as good as its implementation, resourcing, and training.

There are plenty of examples of companies that offer excellent service via chat/social media channels, and AI bots that are so good you may not realise you're not speaking to a human. There are also plenty of examples of companies who use it as further cost-cutting and penny-pinching and it reflects in the poor service, lack of empowerment to do anything, etc.

I've also started to take note of companies I interact with that do provide decent support via these channels, but resolution takes longer as it's obvious the agent is managing multiple chats at once which isn't the case when calling over the phone, meaning each response takes longer even if they do ultimately resolve the issue to my satisfaction.

If QF wants to provide quality live support via chat or social media channels, there is plenty of good CRM software out there to enable them to do so.

Bankwest have an excellent implementation - asynchronous support via secure in app messaging that you can reply to when it works for you.

Qantas' past efforts were similar and I found it quite helpful when making changes to flights while travelling and unable to sit on hold (nr at the time).

Superloops chatbot, however, was the worst of both worlds: it appeared helpful, promised to help and then didn't; and then promised connect me to humans because it couldn't resolve my error, but then failed to do so. Ultimately an agent resolved the issue but I should have just called in the first place, and would have saved myself a bunch of time.

The last thing we need is anything that introduces a risk of errors in people's itineraries

 

[offshore171]

Careful what you wish for

 

[aspro2]

The queries I've had with chatbots almost always need human assistance. I strongly prefer being able to write clear descriptions of issues in the hope they'll be read properly and actioned, but for airlines in the last year, I've found that the humans staffing live or asynchronous chat solutions are barely competent, so in the end I've found little advantage from these "solutions".

SQ online chat (if you can get it to appear): low attention to content of messages, so lots of unnecessary repetition and high risk of mistakes when it comes to booking clarifications or changes.

AC Facebook: really incompetent agents, very low comprehension skills and incorrect information. AC Twitter: no responses.

TK Facebook and Twitter: responsive, but information unreliable when dealing with booking issues.

And for banks... HSBC (very slow responses, very low attention and competence); NAB (very slow responses, but usually ok info).

 

[LionKing]

Careful what you wish for

Why would I need to be careful for when using Chatbot and customer representative chats are going to be more effective than listening to an operator and encounter so many communication misunderstandings and cannot record the chat from my side?

 

[Aeryn]

Chat bots dont offer any information you cant already find on the website; so generally ime useless as if you need help it means what you want to do isnt readily available self serve.

Live chat with a real person, or even the ability to resume/post to a chat with a real person like AMP Go offer is better.

 

[offshore171]

Why would I need to be careful for

The reduction in number of human operators because "we now have ChatBot!"

 

[LionKing]

The reduction in number of human operators because "we now have ChatBot!"

Why do we need that many human operators when some of the operations can be done through a bot or a link to your booking?

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I'd also note that if QF (and VA, for that matter) simply invested to deliver a proper website and app that actually offered anything beyond basic functionality (and even that too often proves too much to ask for!), there'd be less need for or reason to complain about seeking escalated support to begin with.

It's absurd that one still cannot do things like change origin and destination, make more than one change to a ticket without the option being greyed out entirely, access partner flight record locator information, etc., etc. So many basic tasks that still cannot be done via self-service. Even more bizarre is some of this functionality (like changing origin/destination) existed pre-Covid and has still never returned. At VA, you can't even book multi-city international tickets, and fat chance booking a one-way long-haul flight to Australia. What year are we living in?

I don't enjoy the experience of flying US-based airlines much, but credit where it's due, and their websites/apps/tech blow what we have down here out of the water. And when you do have to escalate, I generally find agents (in general, not always) to be more competent and far more amenable to getting issues sorted.

I still find it wild that Australian carriers haven't improved this to help themselves, and the only reason I can come up with why is because the rest of their systems are so antiquated that they can't do anything without a complete and total overhaul.

 

[nancypants]

From my interactions with Telstra and Optus I genuinely wouldn’t be able to tell you if I was dealing with a human or a bot

(This is not a compliment)